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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/23690197">shepherd said come in, come in, shut the door</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/eneiryu/pseuds/eneiryu'>eneiryu</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>out in the fields, out in the valley with you [3]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Teen Wolf (TV)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>An Abrupt Turn Into Silliness, In Which Lies of Omissions Lead to Some Unexpected Truths, Justifiable Reasons to be Annoyed with the Two People You're Sleeping With, Love Confessions, Multi, Trauma Recovery, post-traumatic stress symptoms</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-04-16</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-04-16</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-18 09:34:27</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Explicit</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>8,960</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/23690197</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/eneiryu/pseuds/eneiryu</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>In hindsight, they probably should have given Liam a heads-up about the fevers.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Liam Dunbar/Theo Raeken/Hayden Romero</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>out in the fields, out in the valley with you [3]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1706014</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>27</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>80</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>shepherd said come in, come in, shut the door</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Apparently a very late Day 4 entry into apparently-smutty-sequels week. Thank the folks over on TWLive--it is all their fault. </p><p>A much appreciated thank you to <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/snaeken">snaeken</a> for the much-needed beta.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Hayden comes to shivering, and instantly knows what’s going on, but that’s not why she’d woken up.</p><p>“Hayden!” Liam shrills again, sat up on Theo’s other side and staring down at him in horror, his hands clasped around—around the bare skin of Theo’s freezing arm, and the broad stretch of his freezing back.</p><p>“Oh, shit,” Hayden says blankly, and Liam clearly interprets her curse as directly related to Theo’s condition, but she’s actually not worried about that; she glances down at Theo as he glances up at her, and both of them grimace, though Theo has to do it through a mouthful of clacking teeth. </p><p>“We’ve gotta, like...” Liam is in the middle of desperately planning, movements jerky as he clearly vacillates between leaping out of bed to go do...something, and immediately turning around to come right back to Theo’s side. The effect is comical but more than a little tragic; Hayden winces. “I mean, we can’t take him to a hospital, but—Deaton! We should, we should call Deaton, he’ll know—”</p><p>“Liam,” Hayden tries, reaching for him over Theo’s prone, shivering form.</p><p>“—or maybe Argent? I’ll call, yeah. Yeah. Shit, where’s my phone?” He captures her reaching hands and presses them down against Theo’s skin, then leaves them there as he starts patting around his pajama-clad form, clearly looking for his phone like it makes any sense at all that it’d be on his recently-sleeping person. </p><p>“Liam!” Hayden repeats, almost yelling it this time to be heard over his frantic muttering. She immediately flinches, because they’re in Theo’s apartment and surrounded by other tenants, none of whom will likely appreciate the noise.</p><p>Still, Liam stops. “What?” He snaps, “Hayden, we don’t have time—”</p><p>“Yes, we do!” Hayden interrupts him, more quietly. “Liam, yes, we do.”</p><p>Theo hasn’t said anything but that’s likely because he probably can’t. He’s shivering and shuddering hard and fast, and none of them need a repeat of the time he and Hayden had gotten into a heated argument in the middle of one of his episodes about precisely why, and how long, he’d waited to come to her for help, and he’d nearly bitten through his tongue in trying to make a clever comeback. Hayden shifts a little closer so he can bury his face in her thigh, gritting her teeth against the cold and carding a hand back through his hair when he immediately moves to do so.</p><p>But Liam is still just staring at her. “What are you talking about? He’s—he’s practically a human icicle!” He immediately makes a face and corrects, “Well, chimera icicle, whatever,” even though Hayden hadn’t said anything, and really hadn’t been planning to.</p><p>“I know. I know,” Hayden soothes, trying to offer up as much of her skin as she can to Theo as she also tries to handle Liam, but the problem is Theo is curled up on his side facing her, and the broad stretch of his back is resting just in front of Liam’s tension-vibrating knees. “But, look. This—this just happens sometimes, okay? It’s not...we don’t need to call anyone.”</p><p>“This just happens sometimes,” Liam repeats bluntly. Hayden preemptively winces, because: “This just happens sometimes?!” Liam all but shrieks, and Hayden lunges reflexively forward to slap a hand over his mouth, her other hand reaching back and around to hold the back of his head so that he can’t jerk away from her. </p><p>“Yes,” she hisses, meeting his wide eyes over her palm. “And—and we’ll explain—Theo will explain, really, but. But for now, just...”</p><p>She starts to encourage him down, leaning back and pulling him with her with her hands still over his mouth, around the back of his skull. Liam seems to get it, after a moment; his eyes flicker down to Theo’s prone, shivering form and his expression twists out of frustration and right into helpless distress. Reaching up, he gently pulls Hayden’s hands away from his face and head and then lies down, scooting carefully closer to Theo’s back until he’s pressed up against it. Theo shudders hard, gasping, but he immediately presses back into the touch, and Liam immediately reaches forward to wrap his arm around Theo’s waist, pulling him in even tighter.</p><p>Hayden bites her lip, and then she leans down to gather up the mess of blankets that’d been knocked askew when Liam and then Hayden had sat up, and drags them back over the three of them as she lies down, too, and presses forward against Theo’s chest—feeling Liam’s forearm against her own stomach as she does it—until Theo is sandwiched carefully between them.</p><p>The one blessing of the whole fiasco is that with Liam there, and pressed to Theo’s back as Hayden presses herself as best she can against his front, is that Theo’s fever breaks <em>fast</em>. His shivering starts to slow until it eventually stops, and his skin breaks out in sweat. Hayden can feel Liam jerk, about to pull back—interpreting the sudden dampness of Theo’s skin as a problem, she bets, an escalation—and so she reaches forward and yanks him back forward; back against Theo’s spine. Liam looks over at her, confused, but she just shakes her head.</p><p><em>It’s fine</em>, she mouths. <em>It’s good</em>.</p><p>Liam looks dubious, but he settles back down. </p><p>Finally Theo all but collapses against the bed, suddenly boneless. “Fuck,” he gasps. “Fuck. <em>Fuck</em>.”</p><p>And Liam—Liam apparently takes that as a cue; he immediately rears back, and up.</p><p>“Yeah, no <em>kidding!</em>” He yells. “What the <em>fuck!</em>”</p><p>“<em>Liam!</em>” Hayden hisses, reproving, but Liam just glares at her.</p><p>“<em>No</em>,” he snarls back, and he <em>is</em> snarling it; his fangs had dropped, and his eyes are gold. “No, I thought he was <em>dying!</em>” He switches targets to glare down at Theo instead. “I thought you were <em>dying!</em>” He accuses.</p><p>Theo’s mouth just twists mulishly. “No such luck,” he mutters; Liam’s expression goes outraged, and he punches a hand down at Theo’s chest, cracking him against the sternum. “Ow, fuck, Liam!” Theo snaps, and shoves him away.</p><p>“Oh, my god,” Hayden groans, dragging her palms down her face, then: “Hey!” She yells, as Liam and Theo continue to scuffle. She lunges forward to lean in between them, holding Liam back and half-covering Theo as she does it. “Would you two, jesus, just <em>stop it!</em>”</p><p>They both still, though Hayden can still feel them vibrating with tension, Theo against her stomach and chest, and Liam under her hands. Liam glares at her, but underneath the heat she can see <em>fear</em>, stark and helpless and something that she wishes, instantly and viscerally, she wasn’t so capable of recognizing on Liam’s face. </p><p>“I’m sorry,” she tells him quietly. “<em>We’re</em> sorry,” she corrects, and knees Theo in the back when he makes a scoffing sound. “We should have warned you,” she admits, speaking it right over the top of Theo biting off a pained gasp as her knee digs into his kidney. </p><p>Except that Theo can’t seem to help himself. “Or maybe it’s <em>fine</em>, and you’re <em>overreacting</em>, and you should <em>calm the hell down!</em>”</p><p>This time Hayden doesn’t just knee him; she scowls down at him and <em>smacks </em>him, hard, across the shoulder, with one of the hands she’d had braced and holding Liam at bay. “Ow, Hayden!” Theo complains, and Hayden’s about to shoot something harsh and biting back, except that she suddenly topples over as—as Liam abruptly stands from the bed, removing his body as her counterbalance. Theo <em>oofs</em> as she falls on top of him.</p><p>“Liam,” she hurries to say, but Liam is already shaking his head and storming out of the bedroom. </p><p>“<em>Fuck</em>,” Hayden swears. She tips her head to glare down at Theo, though the effect is somewhat ruined by the fact that she’s still sprawled clumsily on top of him. “Excellent fucking work, asshole,” she tells him, and doesn’t bother to watch her knees and elbows at <em>all</em> as she clambers up and over him to reach the edge of the bed.</p><p>“Hayden—!” Theo calls after her, but she just ignores him as she hurries after Liam.</p><p>He’s not in the apartment when she reaches the main living area, but there’s the slightest whistle of a breeze coming from the balcony door. Hayden exhales out roughly and slows as she approaches the sliding glass door, which Liam had clearly attempted to jam shut in his anger, and which had either failed to close all the way or had gone too far in the other direction and closed <em>too</em> hard, and bounced back open. She slides it back open carefully, and slips out.</p><p>“I don’t want to talk to you right now,” Liam says neutrally. He’s standing stock-still in the middle of the balcony, his arms tightly crossed and his bare toes curling against the cool concrete.</p><p>“Liam,” Hayden tries, wincing.</p><p>“I <em>said</em> I don’t want—” Liam starts to repeat, his volume slowly creeping up, and so Hayden hurries forward until she can slip in front of him, and interrupt.</p><p>“I know. I <em>know</em>,” she insists, when Liam shuts up but then proceeds to glare at her. “But I need to apologize again. Hey,” she says, a little snappishly, when Liam just jerks his gaze away from her, his head shaking, “I’m <em>sorry</em>.”</p><p>Liam’s jaw clenches, but then the tight line of his mouth wobbles just a bit. “This is a very aggressive apology,” he points out, with just the slightest <em>hint</em> of amusement running through his words.</p><p>Hayden can’t help giving him an equally-wobbly smile back. “Yeah, well,” she says. “I learned from the best.”</p><p>Liam clearly realizes she’s talking about him. He works his jaw, clearly trying to keep the smile off his face, and then gives up and lets it crack his tight expression. After a second—Liam looking away again, his brow furrowing—he gives a heartfelt sigh and unwinds his arms, and pulls her in against his chest. Hayden goes, feeling her eyes start to burn with helplessly grateful tears as he wraps his arms around her, and presses his temple to the side of hers.</p><p>“You both really scared me in there,” he murmurs against her skin; Hayden squeezes her eyes even more tightly shut. “<em>He </em>really…” He trails off, sighing and turning his face even more completely against her hair. </p><p>“He doesn’t like to talk about it,” Hayden finds herself confessing. Confessing by <em>proxy</em>, really; this isn’t her story to tell. Still: “I didn’t think it was my—I wanted <em>him</em> to be the one to—” She sighs.</p><p>“Yeah, well,” Liam mutters bitterly, “I guess he didn’t give enough of a shit to—”</p><p>“Oh, fuck <em>off</em>,” Theo suddenly interrupts; the sliding door <em>clangs</em> hard against the end of its track as Theo shoves it open. Both Liam and Hayden whip around to stare at him. “You a big fan of talking about the time you tried to kill Scott?” He sneers. </p><p>His tone is aiming to wound but the rest of his body language is off; hunched-in, already preemptively-winced. Hayden feels the displeasure start to rumble through Liam’s chest—literally: she can feel the growl start to form—and she groans in frustration and drops her forehead onto his shoulder. </p><p>It seems to startle Liam out of it, anyway. He jerks and looks down at her, and his tight expression softens. “Sorry,” he murmurs, pressing the word against her cheekbone, just to the side of her ear. Hayden just turns a little further into the touch.</p><p>But: “<em>You</em>,” he continues, raising his voice, though just enough that Theo can hear him, and not the entire neighborhood, “I am <em>not</em> apologizing to. <em>You</em> remain a <em>dick</em>.”</p><p>Theo just scoffs. But he also reaches back, and slides the balcony door shut—gently this time, so it actually closes all the way—and then he comes forward, and braces his elbows against the balcony railing. He leaves a foot or so of space between himself and Liam and Hayden. </p><p>After a half-minute or so of tense silence—Liam exhibiting a rare amount of patience—Theo finally bites off a harsh noise and whirls around to put his back to the railing. “I was <em>going</em> to tell you,” he snaps. “I just…I hadn’t figured out…” He trails off.</p><p>Hayden looks from Theo to Liam as Liam shifts. He’s got his bottom lip between his teeth, and for all that his arms are still around her, his eyes are fixed on Theo. “What—what <em>was</em> that?”</p><p>Theo shrugs, rough and jerky. He looks away, down towards the sidewalk and road below, and crosses his arms over his chest. “I don’t know,” he finally answers. “I’ve never—I don’t know.”</p><p>Hayden bites her lip, then: “They started after you pulled him out,” she tells Liam, and meets Theo’s eyes when he startles and looks up at her, expression tight. “Right?” She prompts, something uncomfortable squirming in her chest. “You said that they started <em>after</em> Liam pulled you—”</p><p>“Wait,” Liam says, and Hayden stiffens as she catches the sudden high, sharp tone to his voice. “Wait, is this…? Is it <em>my</em>…?”</p><p><em>Oh, shit</em>, Hayden thinks, but Theo is already reacting. “<em>No</em>,” he interrupts, and glares at Hayden, who flinches guiltily. <em>Excellent fucking work, asshole</em>, he mouths at her, deliberately quoting her from earlier, and then he shoves off of the balcony railing so he can get his hands around Liam’s face as he repeats, “No. Stop that, right now. It’s <em>not</em> your fault.”</p><p>“But she said—!” Liam shrills, and Hayden winces again. </p><p>“<em>Liam!</em>” Theo interrupts forcefully. “It has something to do with the skinwalker prison, okay?” He snaps, and shakes Liam a little for emphasis. “The only reason it has <em>anything</em> to do with you, is because you’re the one who pulled me out. <em>Okay?</em>”</p><p>Liam still looks beyond distressed, but his seemingly helpless habit of arguing with Theo whenever and wherever possible seems to kick in. “I thought you said you didn’t know what was causing it,” he points out suspiciously.</p><p>“Them,” Theo corrects absently. “The fevers.” And then his expression sharpens. “And don’t be a prescriptivist ass,” he snaps. “You know what I meant.”</p><p>Liam just grins, the shape of it smooshed a bit between Theo’s hands. “Prescriptivist, huh?” He wonders. “You <em>have</em> been using those SAT prep books, you liar.”</p><p>“Or I just have a higher than eighth-grade reading level,” Theo snaps back, but he’s coloring; caught.</p><p>Liam keeps right on grinning at him, and then all at once his expression sobers, some, and he suddenly darts forward to kiss him; Hayden <em>oofs</em> as she’s sandwiched between his and Theo’s chests. Liam drops an apologetic hand to her hip and squeezes, but when he pulls back, he doesn’t go far.</p><p>“I thought you were dying,” he accuses, but this time it’s quiet; a confession. </p><p>Theo looks back at him, his mouth wet and dropped softly open, and the rest of his expression just blown wide. “I’m sorry,” he tells Liam hoarsely; Liam’s expression blows equally wide—equally raw—and he lunges back forward to kiss him again, and harder this time.</p><p>Hayden wheezes a little as she’s squeezed in between them. “Shit,” Liam swears as he startles backwards, but then he looks down at her—his pupils <em>wide</em>—and he almost immediately surges back forward, and into her, as he takes her mouth. </p><p>The momentum sends Hayden colliding back with Theo and then the both of them colliding back against the railing. Theo’s breath leaves him in a punched-out rush but he just anchors his hands around her hips when Hayden tries to pull away, holding her where she is. Hayden moans a little, half in surprise, and half in arousal—Theo is half-hard against the small of her back, and Liam is even harder against her stomach—and turns her head a little to the side.</p><p>“We are in <em>public</em>,” she hisses, feeling compelled to point it out since neither Liam nor Theo seem particularly interested in acknowledging that fact; Liam had dropped his mouth to her neck when she’d turned her head away from his, and Theo had slid a hand around her stomach so that he could press her harder back against himself as he grinds forward. It probably isn’t an accident that the position <em>also</em> lets him feel Liam’s hard cock against the back of his palm.</p><p>“Technically,” Liam disagrees, reaching up to pull the collar of her shirt down so that he can <em>bite</em> at the raised edges of her collarbone, “we’re in Theo’s apartment.”</p><p>Hayden stares down at the top of his head in outrage, and then she has to gasp, her eyes rolling back some and her head thumping back against Theo’s shoulder, when Liam starts sucking a there-and-gone mark into her skin. Theo whines a little against her ear; Hayden can <em>feel</em> it, as much as hear it.</p><p>“Li-am,” Hayden groans, drawing the two syllables of his name out. Then she catches herself and switches targets to the more reasonable of the two. “Theo!”</p><p>He groans against her ear—and his hips jerk against her back, the curve of her ass—but then he huffs, and straightens up some as he reaches a hand over Hayden’s shoulder, and uses it to pry Liam’s head up. “Inside,” he orders him, and Hayden <em>shivers</em> as she feels it rumble through his chest; Liam’s breath shudders loose of his lungs as he looks up at Theo, wide-eyed, and then he spins around so fast that he nearly spins himself right back around in a complete three-sixty.</p><p>But he staggers to a stop in the right direction, and lunges for the door. As he’s getting it ripped open, Theo suddenly spins <em>Hayden</em> around, and ducks down to kiss her the second she’s facing him. Hayden moans against his mouth and opens for his tongue, pressing harder against him as he drops his hands to her hips and <em>hauls</em> her harder against his body, one thigh sliding in-between hers. </p><p>But: “Hey!” Liam complains from behind them. “Dirty fucking pool, Raeken!”</p><p>“Fuck,” Theo gasps, pulling back. “Fuck, fuck. <em>You</em>,” he orders, looking at Hayden this time, “you, <em>inside</em>.”</p><p>Hayden just stares at him in disbelief. “Whose <em>fault</em> was that?” She wonders, irritated, but Theo just spins her back around and gives her a gentle push forward. </p><p>It pushes her close enough to Liam, who reaches out and snags her arm and <em>pulls</em> her against himself as he steps back through the open balcony door. <em>This is going to end in disaster</em>, Hayden thinks to herself, but she doesn’t stop kissing Liam; it’s only Theo reaching out from behind her and snagging the back of her shirt that prevents her from tumbling down after Liam as Liam does in fact trip over the arm of the couch, and go flailing over onto it, and then almost immediately onto the floor. </p><p>He looks poleaxed by it for about two seconds, and then he looks poleaxed for an entirely different reason. Hayden has to close her eyes and stop looking at him as Theo steps up behind her and hauls her against himself, and uses one hand to turn her face towards him so that he can kiss her over her own shoulder. Theo leaves that hand on her chin as he deepens the kiss, but the other he drops low on her stomach, his fingertips brushing her skin where her shirt had pulled up. </p><p>“Oh,” Hayden gasps against his mouth. “<em>Oh</em>.”</p><p>“Are you going to. <em>Please</em> tell me you’re going to,” Liam starts to beg, breathy, and then he sucks in a sharp breath and says, “Oh, you are,” a little drunkenly, as Theo slides his hands up to cup one of Hayden’s breasts. </p><p>Hayden can imagine how it looks—the two of them stood back to front, Theo’s hand under her shirt and <em>moving</em>—and she moans. It’s echoed by Liam’s own moan a split-second later, and the sound—Hayden gasping, and helplessly jerking—of a zipper being undone. When she opens her eyes and looks back over at him, Liam has his own shirt pushed up out of the way, and his jeans and boxers shoved down far enough that he can take his cock in hand, the tip of it already shiny and wet.</p><p>“<em>Fuck</em>,” Theo swears in her ear, apparently <em>also</em> looking, and Hayden can’t help it; she squeezes her eyes back shut and tips her head back against Theo’s shoulder, biting back a whimper.</p><p>Theo drops his other hand away from her chin as she does it, though he almost immediately just slides it up underneath her shirt to join his first hand, cupping her other breast. Hayden cries out at the sensation of it and rocks back against Theo, who shifts to steady them both, his fingers <em>pinching</em> at her nipples. </p><p>And then it’s <em>Theo</em> who’s sucking in a sharp breath and jerking his hips forward against hers, and Hayden realizes <em>why</em> a second later when her eyes snap open, and she looks down at a sudden flurry of noise to see Liam stripping off his shirt, and then hurrying forward on his knees—his jeans still shoved down to his mid-thigh, and his cock still hard and curving up towards his stomach—to position himself in front of them.</p><p>In front of <em>her</em>, really; Liam glances up at her—a quick, check-in glance—and then puts his mouth to her stomach where Theo’s exploring hands had pulled her shirt even farther up.</p><p>Hayden cries out, and falls forward some to brace her hands—her fingers digging in—around Liam’s shoulders. He straightens up even further to better brace her, but then he says, “Theo,” breathless and half a request, and Hayden feels her brow furrow, confused.</p><p>Except then Theo loops an arm underneath her shoulder, and <em>hauls</em> her back upright, and against him, as he goes. “What…?” She wonders breathily, but Theo just uses the hand attached to the arm he’d looped around her to tilt her chin towards him so that he can kiss her, cutting off her question.</p><p>And then she gets it, because she feels Liam’s fingers wind themselves in the waistband of her sleep-shorts and underwear, and start sliding both of them down. </p><p>Hayden moans. “You two are <em>insane</em>,” she complains, though even as she says it there’s a tight ball of heat winding itself tighter in her gut. “We are standing two feet away from a perfectly good <em>couch</em>.”</p><p>“Nuh uh,” Liam demurs, mumbling it against her now-bare hipbone. “Like this.”</p><p>“Trust us,” Theo murmurs against her mouth, and then he uses his free hand to reach down and get a hold of one of her legs before he <em>lifts</em> it; lifts it up, and over, for the shoulder Liam slides underneath it.</p><p>Hayden moans, but: “If I, if I fall and crack my head open, <em>you</em> <em>two</em> get to explain what happened to Val.” Theo just grins against her cheek, Liam against her inner thigh.</p><p>And then Liam shifts his shoulder to shift her leg even wider back, and shifts his grinning mouth, too; Hayden has to snap one hand up to wind <em>tight</em> in the hair at the back of Theo’s head, her other hand dropping to clutch at the hair covering Liam’s head between her legs. “<em>Fuck</em>,” she groans, as Liam reaches up with his free hand to part her folds, and then his runs his tongue up the seam of her.</p><p>“Count on it,” Theo smirks against her cheek, and Hayden tightens her hand in his hair in revenge.</p><p>But that’s as far as she gets in punishing Theo for his sass, because Liam’s mouth reaches the apex of her legs and he closes his lips around her clit and <em>sucks</em>; Hayden jerks hard enough that Theo has to quickly shift to keep them balanced, the hand he’d had on her chin flying up to cover her mouth.</p><p>“<em>God</em>,” he moans against her ear; Hayden can feel his eyelashes against her temple as he buries his face in her hair, his hips jerking and <em>grinding </em>his hard cock against her back.</p><p>Liam <em>grins</em> against her; Hayden can feel it. She’d tighten her hand in <em>his</em> hair in rebuke, but then she can’t, because he really gets to work, then, laving his tongue over and alternating little sucks here and there with harder, more dragging pressure of his tongue. Her legs start to shake as pleasure starts to wind tighter and tighter in her gut, and Hayden whimpers a little, helplessly, her fingers tightening reflexively in both Theo’s and Liam’s hair.</p><p>“We’ve got you,” Theo soothes, tightening his arm around her chest and wrapping his other arm around her waist. “C’mon, Hayden. We’ve got you.”</p><p>“Oh god,” Hayden moans. “Oh, god. Liam, <em>Theo</em>, I—”</p><p>She comes on a long, drawn-out cry, Liam keeping his mouth pressed up tight to the center as her hips rock against his tongue and mouth. It draws her orgasm out even further, until she has to kick weakly at Liam’s back with the leg she still has dangling over his shoulder, and then—when he just grins wickedly and drags his tongue even harder against her still-singing clit—use the hand she has in his hair to yank him back. </p><p>He grins up at her and makes like he’s about to dive back in, and this time it’s <em>Theo</em> who catches him by the forehead and holds him at bay. “<em>Fine</em>,” Liam complains, faux-disappointed, and lets himself fall backwards onto his elbows. He wiggles his hands once he’s there, a little <em>who, me</em> gesture that absolutely <em>no one</em> is buying, especially because he’s still bare-chested and his cock is still hanging out of his pants.</p><p>Hayden stares at him in fuzzy disbelief for a second, and then she snorts a quiet laugh and twists a little in Theo’s arms. “Tag, you’re it,” she tells him, a little drunkenly, and gets her second foot back on the ground so she can start making her way shakily over to the couch. “Do something about that.”</p><p>“Do something about that,” Liam repeats, voice dropped low and deliberately mocking, and laughs. </p><p>But he shuts up fast on a startled sound when Theo suddenly gets a hold of one of his pant legs and yanks him flat as he yanks his pants further down his legs. </p><p>“Oof,” Liam says, but the smarminess has dropped away from his face to be replaced with wide-eyed arousal, his eyes avid on Theo’s face. He swallows. “You are,” he points out, his throat bobbing a second time, “very dressed.” From her place collapsed on her back on the couch, now, Hayden smirks.</p><p>“That is because <em>some of us</em>,” Theo replies easily, yanking Liam’s other pant leg down and off, so that Liam is <em>finally</em> fully naked, “have something called <em>self-control</em>.”</p><p>Liam makes a face and starts to mumble something mocking, but then Theo—now perched on his knees between Liam’s spread legs—reaches forward to cup his hand around Liam’s cock. Liam’s head falls back with a <em>thunk</em>.</p><p>“Okay,” he mumbles. “Self-control wins.”  But then he just as suddenly raises his head, and looks Theo dead in the eye. “I’m still—still mad at you, you know,” he says, before dropping his head right back down. “I just—don’t think spectacular sex is getting you out of—of me being mad at you,” he concludes, more than a little drunkenly.</p><p>Theo glances, brow furrowed, at Hayden, who widens her eyes and shrugs right back. Theo’s expression falls, a bit, and then he looks back at Liam, and crawls forward a little until he’s crouched over Liam, one hand braced by Liam’s neck, his knees right up against the back of Liam’s thighs. </p><p>“Hey,” he says quietly, and lifts the hand he’d been using to cup Liam’s cock to tip Liam’s chin down, so that when Liam opens his eyes he’s looking straight at Theo. But then Theo seems to freeze up, a little, before he finally bites his lip and leans down to kiss Liam. “I never said thank you,” he whispers against Liam’s lips. </p><p>Hayden watches Liam stare up at him, Liam going a little cross-eyed from Theo’s proximity. His expression stays somber for a few seconds, and then he gets a slight twinkle in his eye, and drawls, “So is this you, you know, thanking me?” </p><p>Theo makes an exaggerated noise of disgust and rears back, ignoring Liam’s cackling laugh to get Liam’s hips hauled up into his lap. Liam keeps right on laughing, at least until Theo gets a hand wrapped back around him, and then he sucks in a sharp breath and arches, his hands slapping down to the floor and clutching at the carpet. </p><p>“I’m going to get rug burn,” he predicts absently, and then cries out as Theo executes some kind of twist on the upstroke, his hips bucking.</p><p>Hayden’s recovered enough from her recent orgasm to be getting <em>very</em> interested in the proceedings, again. She slides down off of the couch until she can kneel behind Theo kneeling in front of Liam, and reach around to wrap her hand around Theo’s around Liam’s cock. She squeezes a little; just enough that Liam’s eyes snap open, and he stares down at them both.</p><p>“No fair,” he says faintly, his eyes fixed on Hayden’s chin hooked over Theo’s shoulder, before they drop down to where Hayden’s and Theo’s fingers are now tangled together around him. “No—no fair,” he moans, dropping his head back down.</p><p>“Uh, <em>entirely</em> fair,” Hayden counters, and then—Theo following her lead—she starts to stroke. </p><p>Liam’s worked up enough that Hayden can guide hers and Theo’s hands up to gather the wetness at the tip of his cock, and work it back down. The added slickness causes Liam’s hips to buck harder, and his stomach to clench more, and Hayden finds herself grinning as she watches him arch up on his shoulders and thinks, <em>yeah, you really are going to get rug burn</em>.</p><p>“Fuck, Hayden,” Theo mutters against the side of her head, and Hayden turns so that she can kiss him. She also winds her other hand around his waist until she can press the heel of her hand against his own hard cock. “<em>Fuck</em>, Hayden!” Theo gasps, his own hips bucking up against the pressure.</p><p>Liam groans. When Hayden looks back over at him—Theo’s head following hers—he’s got his hands covering his face, though he’s peeking between his fingers. “I hate you both,” he says in a rush. “This is torture, c’mon, <em>please</em>,” he kicks a foot against one of Theo’s hips, clearly a <em>hurry up</em> gesture.</p><p>Hayden can see Theo’s smirk out of the corner of her eye, his fingers twitching around hers around Liam. But just as he goes to slow their pace—clearly planning to draw Liam’s <em>torture</em> out, now—Hayden grinds her palm against his own cock. Theo sucks in a sharp breath, and looks at her.</p><p>Hayden raises her eyebrows right back.</p><p>“Ugh,” he groans. “Fine. <em>Fine</em>,” he says, and then he doesn’t just return to jacking Liam off but leans forward—Hayden catching on and taking her hand away—to suddenly swallow Liam down.</p><p>“Holy <em>fuck!</em>” Liam yells, jackknifing upwards; it’s only Theo dropping a heavy forearm across his hips that keeps him from choking Theo altogether.</p><p><em>Holy fuck is right</em>, Hayden agrees, staring in open-mouthed fixation as Theo bobs his head, fast and smooth and clearly angling to get Liam off <em>fast</em>, just like Liam wanted. Above him, Liam is letting out these helpless, high-pitched little moans, and it isn’t long until he drops both hands to Theo’s hair to hold his head as Liam keens, and comes. Theo stays low, letting Liam thrust weakly into his mouth, until finally Liam’s hips still, and he slumps, boneless, against the ground. Only then does Theo pull back, sitting back on his heels and wiping his mouth with the back of his hand. He looks over at Hayden.</p><p>“Satisfied?” He challenges. </p><p>“Am <em>I </em>satisfied?” She wonders, laughing a little, just as Liam shrills, “Is <em>she</em> satisfied?”</p><p>Theo grins at her. She grins back.</p><p>Of all of them, Liam’s the only one naked; Hayden is still wearing her shirt, and Theo is still entirely dressed. Leaning forward, Hayden moves to correct the imbalance, kissing Theo as she gets her fingers wound in his shirt, and starts working it up. She pulls back to get it up and over his head, and then spends a few seconds just staring at him as he stares back at her, both of their chests rising and falling fast. They stay like that for a beat longer, and then Theo surges back forward and takes her mouth again, his hands tugging her shirt up above her head. </p><p>“Hayden,” he pleads against her lips. “Hayden, please.”</p><p>Hayden realizes what he’s asking for. “Yeah,” she tells him. “Yeah, Theo, c’mon.” She drops her hands to his pants, and starts working at the button of his jeans, the zipper. </p><p>“Oh, christ, please,” Liam agrees, Hayden jerking in surprise and looking over at him.</p><p>He doesn’t seem to mind having been ignored. He’s up on his knees and yanking a blanket off the back of the couch, and spreading it out on the ground in front of the couch, where he was just lying. Hayden realizes what he’d been going for just as Theo suddenly wraps an arm around her waist, and gets her lifted up and then lifted <em>over</em> the blanket as he lays her down on her back, Liam scrambling to the side to make room.</p><p>But he doesn’t go far. Instead he swings around so that he can plaster himself up against Theo’s back, his hands dropping to replace Hayden’s in getting Theo’s pants the rest of the way open, and start working them down his hips. He presses his mouth to Theo’s as he does it, and <em>Hayden</em> can’t help moaning as she watches them kiss, her legs rubbing helplessly together. </p><p>“Okay, okay, jesus,” Theo gasps, pulling back; between him and Liam they’d finally gotten his pants and underwear off, and he makes somewhat wild eye-contact with Hayden as he stares down at her.</p><p>“<em>Theo</em>,” Hayden breathes, and Theo groans and lets himself fall forward over her, his hands landing on either side of her head and his hips pressed up flush against the back of her thighs.</p><p>She’s expecting him to kiss her. Instead he stays raised up, his eyes soft on her face. “Hi,” he whispers. Hayden feels her expression slacken a little in surprise, and then twist right back up with feeling; <em>she</em> has to surge up and kiss <em>him</em>, then.</p><p>“Hi,” she whispers back once she pulls back, and then she slides one hand into his hair, and one hand between their bodies to take hold of his cock. He groans but holds steady until she tightens her grip around his head, and her legs around his hips, and guides him forward, inside of her. </p><p>He pauses when he’s fully seated, his face buried in her neck as he gasps. Hayden slides the hand she’d had in his hair down, across his back, and then jolts a little when her fingers run right into Liam’s. Lifting her head up a little, she looks at Liam, who’s kneeled down by Theo’s side, one hand braced low on his back; Liam holds her eyes, and tangles their fingers briefly together. </p><p>And then he releases them, and leans over so that his mouth is right by Theo’s ear.</p><p>“C’mon, Theo,” he murmurs. He wraps one hand around the back of Theo’s neck, and Hayden can’t really <em>see </em>it, but she can intuit that he just scratched his nails <em>hard</em> along Theo’s skin when Theo shudders. “What are you waiting for?” Liam presses, and makes grinning eye contact with Hayden as he does it. “C’mon.”</p><p>Theo groans and flails out a hand to smack it against Liam’s side. “That’s enough out of the peanut gallery,” he gripes. But he also straightens up over Hayden after, and looks down at her. “Ready?”</p><p>Hayden looks back at him, and then at Liam grinning and <em>completely</em> unrepentant over his shoulder, and so instead of answering, she—lifts up a foot, and then swings it forward to dig her heel against his flank. Theo jolts in surprise and stares down at her just as Liam collapses into breathless laughter. </p><p>“You know what <em>that</em> means,” Liam gasps out between guffaws, “Giddy—”</p><p>Theo just manages to lean over and slap a hand over his mouth in time. “Don’t,” he warns, “you dare.”</p><p>Liam grins, the shape of it obvious even underneath Theo’s covering hand. But he relents, and Theo—after squinting suspiciously at him—leans back over so that he’s positioned fully back over Hayden. “That was your fault,” he tells her; Hayden grins just as widely as Liam had.</p><p>But: “C’mon, Theo,” she murmurs, and slides both of her hands into his hair to guide his head down to hers, until she can kiss him. “C’mon.”</p><p>This time he listens. This time he <em>moves</em>.</p><p>Hayden cries out, and slides her hands down from his face to his shoulders as she clings to him, her body rocking with the force of his thrusts. Theo groans and drops one hand to her hip to help hold her steady for his pistoling hips, his other hand clutching in the blanket over her head. “Jesus,” he gasps, burying the word in her neck. “Jesus. <em>Jesus</em>, Hayden.”</p><p>“Theo,” Hayden gasps in turn, her nails <em>digging</em> into the muscles of his shoulders, his back, as the pleasure in her gut—really only ever banked, interrupted—roars right back to life. She isn’t going to last long but neither is <em>Theo</em>; she can feel his thighs trembling against hers, can feel his fluttering stomach muscles against her own. </p><p>And then Liam must do something, because Theo suddenly jerks—his hips pressing <em>deep</em> against hers—and cries out. Hayden’s eyes snap open and she sees Liam bent over Theo’s side, his fingers wound tight in Theo’s hair and his mouth pressed up against Theo’s ear. Hayden can’t hear whatever he’s saying—Liam is deliberately speaking quietly enough, and directly into the shell of Theo’s ear—but whatever it is, it’s apparently <em>working</em>; Theo gasps and the pace of his thrusts <em>double</em>.</p><p><em>Hayden</em> cries out, then.</p><p>She falls over the edge not long after. She can feel Theo shudder as she clenches helplessly around him, Theo groaning and giving a few more jerky, shallow thrusts before he presses his hips up flush against hers; Hayden can feel it as he comes, too, his cock pulsing inside her.</p><p>Theo stays poised, trembling, over her for a few seconds longer, and then he slowly, <em>slowly</em>—giving her time to prepare herself—pulls back, and free of her body. He slumps onto his side next to her when he’s done, and then rolls almost immediately onto his back. “Jesus,” he tells the ceiling, all in an exhaled rush, and then he throws an arm up to cover his eyes, laughing a little.</p><p>Hayden laughs in turn, her whole body still <em>singing</em>, but then she frowns and glances down when she hears shuffling. Liam looks back at her from the edge of the blanket, his knees resting just south of hers and Theo’s feet, and his pupils are blown <em>wide</em>, his lips between his teeth. Hayden glances down, and sees that his cock is once more hard, and he’s got one hand wrapped around it, his thumb and middle finger circled around the base.</p><p>“Hey,” she murmurs, tilting her head softly to the side. “What are you doing down there? C’mere.”</p><p>He does, almost immediately, scrambling forward on his knees until he’s perched, trembling with tension and arousal, between them. Hayden frowns a little and sits up, folding her legs underneath her as she does so that she can sit on her hip, and reach forward to kiss him.</p><p>“What do you want, hm?” She asks against his lips. “C’mon, tell me.”</p><p>Liam’s eyes squeeze shut. “Just—just this,” he hurries to say, and captures one of her hands to drag it down to his cock. “<em>Please</em>.”</p><p>Hayden doesn’t make him ask twice, just starts to work him; Liam leaves his hand where it is, so that their fingers are working together. It’s <em>Theo</em> who sits up, and—Hayden glancing over at him—flicks Liam not <em>exactly</em> gently across one nipple, and orders, “Move your hand.”</p><p>Liam jolts and then groans and takes his hand away from his own cock like he’d been burned. Theo grins and replaces it with his own, and then reaches up to wind a hand in Liam’s hair and then yank him down into a hard, harsh kiss as he and Hayden continue to stroke him, their fingers now tangled together and moving fast.</p><p>“I’m gonna,” Liam starts to gasp. “I—I-I…”</p><p>He comes on a loud, drawn-out moan, spilling over Theo’s thighs; Theo having sensibly moved himself to protect the blanket underneath him. Hayden shoots him a tired, appreciative grin when she realizes. Theo rolls his eyes, but leaves Liam’s pleasure-slack mouth alone for a moment to instead lean forward, and kiss her.</p><p>They’re still kissing when Liam suddenly flops backwards with a loud groan, breaking the moment. Hayden jerks to look down at him, startled.</p><p>“I’m the worst. I just reinforced bad behavior,” he says, seemingly confessing this realization to the ceiling. “You two <em>lie </em>to me,” he explains, waving his hands a little wildly in the air, “and I reward you with amazing sex!”</p><p>Theo had leaned back out of the way of his flailing arms. “Wow,” he replies. “Ego, much?” Liam aims a lazy kick at his side, which Theo easily blocks. “Also, what <em>lie</em>? We didn’t <em>lie.</em>”</p><p>“Sins of omission!” Liam squawks, over-loud and twisting around to half-tackle Theo back. “You didn’t tell me! In this case that’s the same thing as lying!” </p><p>“By what <em>possible</em> stretch of logic?” Theo wonders, trying to fight off Liam’s tackle, but not particularly <em>hard</em>; he winds up flat on his back with Liam on top of him, Liam trying ineffectually to grab at his face.</p><p>Hayden rolls her eyes, and leaves them there as she heads for the shower. </p><p>She’s just gotten the water to the right temperature and stepped inside when there’s a pounding of feet, and Liam slips in after her <em>just </em>in front of Theo. He presses himself up against her back as he, quite literally, <em>sticks his tongue out</em> at Theo, and shoves the shower curtain closed in front of Theo’s face.</p><p>“Only two people at a time!” Liam crows, and momentarily buries his grin in the side of Hayden’s neck. “Those were <em>your</em> rules!”</p><p>Hayden can’t see it, but she can <em>hear</em> it in Theo’s voice when he rolls his eyes and says, “You are a <em>child</em>.” He drops down onto the closed toilet lid, after, waiting for his turn.</p><p>Hayden snorts a laugh, but she leans back into it when Liam presses himself forward against her; she lets him turn her head and kiss her, her lips curling against his in spite of herself. </p><p>But she also stays, when Liam steps out of the shower, and smirks at him when he whirls around, open-mouthed, as Theo steps inside in his place and flicks the shower curtain closed on <em>his</em> gob-smacked expression. Hayden laughs, helplessly amused, and leans up into it when Theo leans down to kiss her, his hands on either side of her face.</p><p>Hayden’s expecting to find Liam back in the bedroom when they finally get out, but instead he’s in the kitchen. She exchanges a confused—bordering on concerned—look with Theo, and then the both of them slowly make their way forward, down the hallway from the bathroom and into the kitchen. Liam glances up at them as they walk in, and then jerks his head back down to watch his hands as he pours—as he pours hot water from Hayden’s electric kettle into three mugs, single white threads trailing from the edges of each.</p><p>“Are you making <em>tea?</em>” Theo asks, clearly skeptical. “<em>Why</em> are you making—”</p><p>He cuts off with an <em>oof</em> when Hayden elbows him <em>hard</em> in the side. He twists around to glare at her, and then freezes when he catches the warning expression on her face. He swallows, chastised. Hayden glares at him a little longer, but when she turns back to Liam—expecting him to still be overly focused on his little line of mugs—he’s staring at them, unimpressed.</p><p>Still, he shoves mugs at their chests, one in each hand. “Here,” he says, more like an <em>order</em> than an offer. </p><p>But whatever hers and Theo’s best intentions, neither of them are going to be able to drink any of their tea until it cools. Exhaling out softly, Hayden sets her down on the counter and moves for the freezer, pulling it open and retrieving a handful of ice cubes in one palm before leaning back out. As Theo and Liam both watch her in confusion, she drops two ice cubes in her own mug, and then two more into each of Theo’s and Liam’s. She raises her eyebrows once she’s done. Liam colors, abashed.</p><p>Probably they could go back out to the couch, or the bedroom, or, hell, even the balcony, but after a moment’s hesitation, Hayden just retrieves her mug, and sits cross-legged in the middle of the kitchen floor. Both Theo and Liam stare at her in open confusion for a few seconds, and then—Theo’s eyes flicking briefly up to Liam’s face—Theo crosses his own legs, and folds down until he’s sitting, his mug cradled between his hands. </p><p>It takes Liam a few more seconds to sit.</p><p>Finally, though, he lowers himself down on one palm, and sits. He doesn’t sit cross-legged, though, but instead with his knees pulled up to his chest, his back against the cabinets next to the oven. Hayden’s heart twists as she looks at him.</p><p>“Will it—will it happen again tonight?” Liam asks his kneecaps. “I mean, is it like one of those things where once it <em>starts</em> happening, it <em>keeps</em> happening, you know, until it—it—”</p><p>“No,” Theo interrupts, quiet. And then he grimaces and shoots a look at Hayden. “Not as far as I’ve experienced, anyway.”</p><p>“Okay,” Liam replies, once again to his knees. “Okay, that’s—that’s good, at least.”</p><p>Theo’s expression falls. “Liam…”</p><p>But Liam interrupts him. “Why didn’t you just tell me? Why make me—make me <em>find out</em> like that?”</p><p>Theo stares at him, and then at his still-steaming tea, and then he sets the mug down hard enough that some of it sloshes over the side and onto the tile, and covers his face with his hands. “Jesus, Liam,” he snaps. “What did you want me to say? <em>Remember that time I tried to kill all of you, and successfully killed a bunch of other people, and got sent to a supernatural prison instead? Well, turns out my release had consequences!</em>” He uses a high, mocking voice for his faux-speech. It drops away when he says, scoffing, “Come <em>on</em>.”</p><p>But Liam just says, “Yeah,” says, “Why not?”</p><p>Theo drops his hands, and stares at Liam. Hayden can’t blame him; she’s doing the same thing.</p><p>“I mean,” Liam continues, flushing under the attention, “that’s what this <em>is</em>, isn’t it? That’s what we’re doing. Otherwise what’s the <em>point?</em>”</p><p>Hayden just stares at him. “What—do you mean? What <em>what</em> is?”</p><p>But Liam just explodes, “This!,” and gestures around between the three of them. “This, whatever we’re doing! Isn’t—isn’t being <em>honest </em>with each other the point? Isn’t being <em>able</em> to be honest with each other the point?” </p><p><em>Isn’t </em>trusting<em> each other enough to be honest with each other the point</em>, Liam doesn’t say, but Hayden—and Theo, based on the way he sucks in sharp breath—hears it anyway. She feels her eyes fill with tears as shame curdles in her chest. Liam sees it, and his face falls.</p><p>“No,” he whispers as he starts to unfold himself, and crawl towards her. “No, Hayden—”</p><p>“I’m sorry,” she blurts out. “I’m really, really sor—”</p><p>“No,” Theo interrupts, over-loud and startling both Hayden and Liam both; Liam freezes. “No, absolutely not. <em>You</em> don’t get to feel bad for <em>my </em>screw-ups,” he snaps, glaring at her, like him saying it makes it an absolute truth.</p><p>For a moment Hayden feels anger start to burn bright right alongside the shame in her chest, but it burns up the second she sees the determination on Theo’s face; it’d almost be comedic, out of context. But <em>in</em> context… She chokes on a laugh that’s really more of a sob. “I don’t think that’s how <em>emotions</em> work, dork.”</p><p>Theo’s brow furrows at the affectionate insult, and his mouth starts to open, but before he can say anything, <em>Liam</em> suddenly groans and covers his face with his hands. “<em>No</em>,” he moans. “<em>No one</em> feels bad,” he suddenly orders, dropping his hand to point at each of them in turn.</p><p>“What?” Theo says, now sounding a little outraged. “What the hell, then, Liam, why even bring it up at—”</p><p>“Because that’s what adults do, when they fight with people they love!” Liam says, raising his voice to be heard over Theo. “They talk things out, and—”</p><p>He cuts himself off abruptly, his eyes going comically wide as he seems to fully absorb what he’d just said. </p><p>“Um,” he stutters. “Ah, I mean…” He shuts up again, his cheeks going a shade of red so bright it almost looks painful.</p><p>Hayden stares at him, absently aware that Theo is doing the exact same thing. <em>Because that’s what adults do, when they fight with people they love!</em> Liam had told her he’d loved her plenty of times, back in that amorphous <em>before</em>—before Hayden had left, before Monroe, before Hayden-and-Theo, and then Hayden-and-Theo-and-Liam—but never <em>after</em>. And more than that… </p><p>She turns her head, finally, to look more fully at Theo, who’d never <em>had</em> even that before; he looks like he’s barely breathing, his eyes fixed on Liam’s face.</p><p>Liam doesn’t last much longer under the silence and the scrutiny. “Jesus, okay, what,” he snaps. “Yeah, I love you. <em>Both</em> of you. <em>Surprise</em>,” he adds, now in a rambling, defensive rush. “It’s not a big thing, you don’t have to be—”</p><p>Hayden’s about ninety-percent sure that the last part of that sentence was going to be <em>you don’t have to be a dick about it</em>, and she’s <em>equally</em> sure that most—if not all—of it had been directed at Theo, but she doesn’t get a chance to hear the rest. She doesn’t get the chance, because Theo suddenly lunges for Liam mid-sentence and tackles him back and <em>kisses</em> him, muffling the rest of it into incomprehensibility. She blinks.</p><p>“Um,” Liam says, when Theo pulls back. </p><p>“I’m sorry, okay? I-I…” Theo’s face screws up like saying what he’s saying is causing him actual, physical pain. “I love you.”</p><p>Liam frowns, still flat on his back and staring up at Theo. “You’re...sorry that you love me?” Hayden realizes he’s teasing almost a full second before Theo does; it’s why she’s prepared for it when Theo raises up and deliberately covers Liam’s mouth and nose with his palms, lazily smothering him. </p><p>Liam laughs, loud and unbridled, and knocks Theo’s arms away before getting him rolled over, so that he’s covering Theo instead; Hayden has to quickly grab her mug, and scoot back out of the way. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” he gasps, still laughing. “I couldn’t help it.” He grins, and does his best to sober up. “I love you,” he says, more quietly, his eyes fixed on Theo’s. He leans down and kisses him, soft and close-mouthed. “I really—I really do.”</p><p>And then he looks up, and sideways, so that he’s looking at Hayden.</p><p>“And I love <em>you</em>,” he says, grinning. “But not,” he continues, giving her an exaggerated frown, “how far away you are right now.”</p><p>Hayden rolls her eyes, even as her heart flops over itself in her chest. She nudges her mug to the side so that she can crawl forward onto her knees, and get close enough that Liam can reach out, and wind his fingers in her hair, and kiss her. </p><p>“I love you too,” she murmurs against his mouth, and smiles when he does. </p><p>And then she looks down at Theo, and reaches forward to smooth one hand back over his hair as he stares up at her, and at Liam—at her <em>and</em> Liam—his expression as raw as she’s ever seen it.</p><p>“And I love <em>you</em>,” she tells him, and leans down to kiss him, slow and deep and careful. </p><p>She tries to pull back after, and can’t; Theo catches the back of head with one hand, and holds her down. She can feel his eyelashes against the skin of her cheeks, his eyes squeezing tightly shut. </p><p>“I love you,” he confesses against her mouth. </p><p>And then he reaches up and gets his hand in Liam’s shirt, or his hair, or something. Whatever it is, he uses it to yank Liam down so that Liam’s face is right next to hers; Liam shoots her a glance, and grins, Hayden’s heart now no longer flopping, but <em>soaring</em>, just as Theo says, “I love you,” again, to both of them, and tugs Liam even harder in, until they’re all pressed together, one against the next, against the next. </p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Once again, I must say: CONDOMS. Artistic license aside, condoms, birth control, not-touching-other-people-during-this-time-of-corona, whatever you need to do. Safe sex is best sex.</p><p>All feedback loved! If you liked, please consider a comment or a <a href="https://eneiryu.tumblr.com/post/615595012709875712/shepherd-said-come-in-come-in-shut-the-door">reblog</a>!</p></blockquote></div></div>
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